Humanverse

Lesly vs Lessly

American parents have registered 15,785 Leslys since 1880, against 636 Lesslys. Lesly is still ahead, with 149 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lesly against Lessly, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lesly Lessly

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Lesly has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1919 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1988, when Lesly had 65 and Lessly had 7.

Side by side

  Lesly Lessly
Total US births 15,785636
Most in one year 84752
Babies in 2025 149under 5
Estimated living today 15,000630
Median age today 2122
Peak year 20032001
Best rank 364th girls2,808th girls
Rank in 2025 1,443rdunranked
First recorded 19191988
Girls / boys 15,281 / 504636 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Lesly and Lessly.